Amoeba Music is now carrying an exclusive new T-shirt with artwork by the King of Underground Comics, R. Crumb, featuring the King of the Delta Blues, Robert Johnson!
Amoeba Music has partnered with filmmaker Terry Zwigoff (Crumb, Ghost World, Bad Santa) in producing a T-shirt of iconic Delta blues singer Robert Johnson drawn by underground comic artist R. Crumb from the first found photo of Johnson. This T-shirt is an Amoeba Music exclusive, available only through Amoeba.com or at all three Amoeba stores.
Here's a brief history of the image on the shirt. Up until 1973, there was no known photo of Robert Johnson, the haunting, mysterious Delta blues singer lionized by countless rock and roll bands. A postage stamp size photo taken by Johnson himself in a photo booth in the early 1930s turned up in 1973 and was published in Rolling Stone in 1986. After it was published, underground comix artist R. Crumb, a life-long 78 collector and blues fan, drew it as a cover for a highly specialized collector's publication called 78 Quarterly, a magazine specializing in stories on rare pre-war blues and jazz artists and their impossibly rare, highly coveted 78s.
After publication of the 78 Quarterly issue with the Robert Johnson R. Crumb drawing, Terry Zwigoff got permission from both the publisher and Crumb to produce T-shirts with the image, and they were available for a few years in the mid-1990s. Since then, the T-shirts with the R. Crumb rendering of the Robert Johnson photo have been unavailable. Terry is a friend of Amoeba and recently a deal was struck to produce the shirt again. It is now available on a high quality 100% Egyptian cotton T-shirt as an Amoeba exclusive.
You still have time to pick up a few as Christmas gifts for any blues lovers in your circle if you hurry down to one of the stores or buy it on Amoeba.com. It's guaranteed to be one of their favorite gifts this year.
Amoeba Music has partnered with filmmaker Terry Zwigoff (Crumb, Ghost World, Bad Santa) in producing a T-shirt of iconic Delta blues singer Robert Johnson drawn by underground comic artist R. Crumb from the first found photo of Johnson. This T-shirt is an Amoeba Music exclusive, available only through Amoeba.com or at all three Amoeba stores.
Here's a brief history of the image on the shirt. Up until 1973, there was no known photo of Robert Johnson, the haunting, mysterious Delta blues singer lionized by countless rock and roll bands. A postage stamp size photo taken by Johnson himself in a photo booth in the early 1930s turned up in 1973 and was published in Rolling Stone in 1986. After it was published, underground comix artist R. Crumb, a life-long 78 collector and blues fan, drew it as a cover for a highly specialized collector's publication called 78 Quarterly, a magazine specializing in stories on rare pre-war blues and jazz artists and their impossibly rare, highly coveted 78s.
After publication of the 78 Quarterly issue with the Robert Johnson R. Crumb drawing, Terry Zwigoff got permission from both the publisher and Crumb to produce T-shirts with the image, and they were available for a few years in the mid-1990s. Since then, the T-shirts with the R. Crumb rendering of the Robert Johnson photo have been unavailable. Terry is a friend of Amoeba and recently a deal was struck to produce the shirt again. It is now available on a high quality 100% Egyptian cotton T-shirt as an Amoeba exclusive.
You still have time to pick up a few as Christmas gifts for any blues lovers in your circle if you hurry down to one of the stores or buy it on Amoeba.com. It's guaranteed to be one of their favorite gifts this year.
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R. Crumb (1), Robert Johnson (4), T-shirts (2), Amoeba (17), Exclusive (1), Gift Idea (1), Blues (13), Comics (7)Recent Posts From Amoebite
Comments
That is amazing. I ddin't know that shirt was made orignally.
Do you ship to Canada?
If not, can I have it sent to a cousin in the US?
Thanks,
Tim
Hi Kevin - thank you for the correction! We fixed it.
Tim - you can buy the shirts on Amoeba.com & we will indeed ship to Canada. http://www.amoeba.com/buy-stuff/search.html?bsq=r.+crumb+robert+johnson
You're welcome - glad to help . Amoeba rules !.
Now if you could just make a Muddy Waters shirt.........
The 2 known photos of Robert (this one included) were found and validated in 1973........not 1990. Crumb drew the cartoon for his Blues Trading Card set which came out in 1995.
A 3rd photo which is very probably Robert was found in 2005.- it has yet to be verified.